Ra Ra Riot still 'struggling' to make it, but they're making noise

The indie rock collective Ra Ra Riot, described as the next Arcade Fire due to their use of the unconventional instrumentation found in many indie rock bands, met in 2006 at Syracuse University.

Ryan Wood

If you don’t know what direction you want to take in college, and you’re not sure if you want to dive into the daily grind of the real-world office-like environment when you graduate, you’re left with few options. But if you’re passionate about music, it only makes sense to give a shot at doing what you like.

For six kids in upstate New York, music was the way to go.

The indie rock collective Ra Ra Riot, described as the next Arcade Fire due to their use of the unconventional instrumentation found in many indie rock bands, met in 2006 at Syracuse University.

“I think we might have started a little differently than other bands, meaning that we weren’t a bunch of friends,” violinist Rebecca Zeller said via phone from Holland, one of the countries the band stopped in on their fall European tour. “We came together for the purpose of creating a band and playing music, and then, from that, really blossomed our friendships.”

When Ra Ra Riot formed, the band had six members; it still does, but it’s missing one of its driving forces. The tragic loss of drummer John Ryan Pike – who is believed to have drowned in Buzzards Bay after a show in June 2007 – stunned the music community. It also left a gaping hole in the band. But in the weeks after Pike’s death, the band wanted to continue. Zeller said Pike would’ve been devastated if the band ended what began turning into a flourishing career.

“Especially with a lot of the tough time that we’ve been through, I think it could be easy to possibly turn against each other, but instead it’s really helped our relationship,” Zeller said. “Obviously his death affects me differently now than it did right after it happened. (First), it was more recovering from a tragedy and the loss of a best friend. Now, when I think of him, it’s happy memories and remembering all the positives. I think we use him as a source of inspiration. We try to go about it as if we’d think about things he would’ve wanted if he were still here.”

One of the most essential parts of working on their first full-length album, "The Rhumb Line," was including as much as Pike as possible. He wasn’t alive to see the release of the band’s 2007 EP, but his contributions as the drummer and a songwriter were too much to ignore. He helped record the album when the band worked on it in early 2007.

“It was really important for us to finish “St. Peter’s Day Festival,” which is the last song he wrote, and finish that in a way we hoped he’d be happy and proud of it,” Zeller said. “We wanted to include as much of him on the record as we could.”

On "The Rhumb Line," released in August 2008 on Barsuk Records, Pike’s influence is everywhere. Four songs from the band’s self-released 2007 EP appear on its debut album, including “St. Peter’s Day Festival,” and are perhaps the most powerful and strongest tracks on the album. The melodic blend of Zeller’s violin and Alexandra Lawn’s cello playing with singer Wesley Miles’ brilliant pitch-shifting vocals put a perfect finishing touch on the song Pike wrote. Pike also cowrote “Dying is Fine,” with its lyrics bringing an eerie feel to the album.

Ra Ra Riot, which now has Gabriel Duquette on drums, has taken a short break after an extensive European tour. The band – Zeller, Miles, Lawn, Duquette, Milo Bonacci (guitar) and Mathieu Santos (bass) – has returned to the U.S. and gets set to embark on a mini tour before taking a break from touring.

“I’m sure if things we’re quiet, yeah, that wouldn’t be good,” Zeller said. “We’ve been on the road for three and a half months. We’re really excited to come back, but not because we dislike Europe. This is our first 10-day break since August. We’re excited to do a short tour in December, see our families, and relax, and then take a month off for the holidays.”

Zeller said the reception the band received overseas was overwhelming.

“Surprisingly, the feedback has been pretty fantastic,” Zeller said. “The show attendance has been pretty incredible. Before the album was released, when there was no label backing us and really no one promoting us, and the attendance was pretty low. Coming to Europe, I was expecting the shows to be like they were during our first tour of the U.S., but we’ve had pretty good crowds. Overall, the shows have been great.”

Ra Ra Riot’s infectious indie-infused chamber rock keeps gaining more and more praise, and with the release of "The Rhumb Line," the band has started attracting more attention than ever before.

“We played Conan and Letterman. It felt pretty incredible to achieve that, but it definitely wasn’t a ‘we-made-it’ moment,” Zeller said. “I don’t think I’ve had that moment yet, just because we’re still struggling to make it. I think when this turns into a career that provides a comfortable lifestyle, and when we’re able to support ourselves doing this, maybe that’s when. But I feel really positive about things now, and I’m really happy with the direction things are going.”

Now back in the states, Ra Ra Riot is about to embark on a short, U.S. tour, which begins Wednesday, Dec. 3 at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vt., and continues with shows at Valentines in Albany, N.Y. (Dec. 4), the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. (Dec. 5), and Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa. (Dec. 6). The full list of tour dates is at www.rarariot.com/shows.php.

“One of our favorite shows off the last tour was in Jamestown, N.Y. The crowd was just unbelievable, excited, and enthusiastic,” Zeller said. “Sometimes those shows are much more exciting to play.”

Ryan Wood is a freelance writer who has contributed to the Community Newspaper Company, Noize Makes Enemies, The Sun (London), The Weekly Dig, The Noise and Earlash. Send him an email at rwood76@gmail.com. Visit his blog, Take Me to Your Music, at http://blogs.townonline.com/planetmusic.